What happened
Shares of WISeKey International Holding (WKEY -1.40%) jumped as much as 46.9% in trading on Friday after the digital security company announced an auction of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Shares settled lower as the day wore on and closed 6.9% higher.
So what
WISeKey will hold an auction for what it calls "the first ever secure luxury NFT watch" on March 31, with an embedded digital certificate for the watches sold. The auction is meant to demonstrate the technology that could be used to identify ownership of an item.
Image source: Getty Images.
This isn't a move into cryptocurrency, per se, but it does show the company's interest in making digital ownership certificates a viable product long term. The NFT will live on the blockchain and work with an integrated semiconductor tag to identify an item. This could be used to track the ownership of any item digitally.
Now what
NFTs have gotten a lot of attention for the prices of digital art with NFTs, but there is a practical use for the technology. Ownership of an item can be tracked digitally with a verifiable chain as well. This is what WISeKey is trying to build with its NFT technology; if it succeeds in auctions like this, it could make WISeKey into a long-term growth stock in the security space.
